Google layoffs hit finance, real estate divisions: Report

“We’re responsibly investing in our company's biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead,” a Google spokesperson said in an email

Amidst ongoing workforce reductions, Google is reportedly laying off staff from its finance and real estate divisions.

However, the tech giant reportedly said it remains committed to expanding its geographic footprint, with continued investments in growth hubs across Ireland, the United States, and India.

The layoffs have hit the California-based cloud giant's teams in treasury, business services, revenue cash operations and other areas, according to Business Insider.

In a statement to CRN US, a Google spokesperson said that the company is "simplifying our structures to give employees more opportunity to work on our most innovative and important advances and our biggest company priorities, while reducing bureaucracy and layers."

Google layoffs

"As we've said, we're responsibly investing in our company's biggest priorities and the significant opportunities ahead," the spokesperson said.

"To best position us for these opportunities, throughout the second half of 2023 and into 2024, a number of our teams made changes to become more efficient and work better, remove layers and align their resources to their biggest product priorities."

The spokesperson said that the layoffs are not companywide and that re-organi s ations are part of companies ensuring they can meet priorities.

Affected employees can apply for open roles inside of Google and receive outplacement services and severances in line with local requirements.

Most of the impacted roles won't move location. A small number will move internationally and domestically to hubs receiving investment, including India, Chicago, Atlanta and Dublin, the spokesperson said.

In January, Google CEO Sundar Pichai told employees to expect more layoffs in 2024 – but it wouldn't be as bad as 2023.

More than 1,000 Google employees were laid off that month across various departments, from Google Assistant to its devices and services groups, plus another "few hundred" employees in its advertising sales group.

In January 2023, Google said it would be laying off 12,000 employees as part of a shift to investing in artificial intelligence and amid lowered spending on business IT since the height of the global pandemic.

Google joins a host of other tech vendors cutting employees this year, including Intel and Amazon Web Services.